CoppaFeel!

Last updated
CoppaFeel!
FormationApril 2009;15 years ago (2009-04)
Founder Kristin Hallenga and Maren Hallenga
Founded atLondon
TypeCharitable organisation
PurposeTo give everyone the best possible chance of surviving breast cancer by speaking to young people in their natural habitat.
Headquarters1-4 Pope Street, London SE1 3PR
Location
Coordinates 51°30′00″N0°04′42″W / 51.499970°N 0.078370°W / 51.499970; -0.078370
Region
United Kingdom
Official language
English
Key people
Natalie Kelly (CEO)
Staff
15
Website coppafeel.org

CoppaFeel! is a breast cancer awareness charity based in London [1] focused on promoting early detection of breast cancer by encouraging women under 30 to regularly check their breasts. [2] CoppaFeel is a tongue-in-cheek reference to molestation.

Contents

CoppaFeel! is a charity partner of Cosmopolitan magazine. [3]

History


CoppaFeel! was founded in 2009 by sisters Maren and Kristin Hallenga, after Kristin was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 23. [4] Despite a family history of cancer, doctors originally dismissed a tumor on Kristin's breast as “hormonal”. [1]

Driven by the difficult experience, the Hallenga sisters launched CoppaFeel! at Beach Break Live in 2009. [5]

Mission and values

CoppaFeel!'s awareness campaigns are based on increased physical self-awareness and monitoring one's breasts in the hopes of quickly detecting any changes. [6] Most campaign work is carried out at universities, music festivals, schools and work places and via national awareness campaigns around the UK. [5] CoppaFeel!'s ambassadors, called 'the Boobettes', are young women who experienced breast cancer at a young age. [7]

Campaigns

In Summer 2014, the organization launched the ‘What Normal Feels Like’ campaign, seeking to reclaim language and imagery associated with breasts. [8] Hundreds of women submitted pictures of their breasts, along with a descriptive word such as “wibbly” or “springy”, later used in a series of advertisements designed to normalise and desexualise female breasts. [9]

CoppaFeel! ran a ‘Cheknominate’ campaign, a “healthier” take on the Neknominate craze. [10] Cheknominate encouraged people to record themselves checking their breasts before nominating a friend to do the same. The Huffington Post were supportive of the campaign, and encouraged their readers to use the hashtag #Cheknominate on social media. [11]

Media coverage

Many of Coppafeel!’s publicity campaigns have involved the use of giant inflatable ‘boob’ costumes. [4] CoppaFeel! gained widespread media coverage after decorating The Angel of the North with a ‘boob hijack’ sticker. [12]

In 2015, CoppaFeel! founder Kristin Hallenga was profiled in Kris: Dying to Live, a documentary about her battle with terminal breast cancer. [13] She also played herself in The C Word , a BBC One adaptation of the book by cancer blogger Lisa Lynch. [14]

Festifeel

CoppaFeel! hosts the annual music festival, Festifeel, helping to raise money for breast cancer awareness. [15] It describes itself as "Britain's only boutique music festival with boobs in mind!". [16]

Celebrity support

The organization's fundraising activities have received support from celebrities, including Fearne Cotton, Russell Howard, Newton Faulkner, Lorraine Kelly and Dannii Minogue. [17]

Radio presenters Greg James and Dermot O'Leary ran the 2013 Bath Half Marathon wearing giant inflatable "boobs" in support of CoppaFeel! [18]

Gavin & Stacey star Mathew Horne appeared in a cinema campaign for Coppafeel!, encouraging viewers to check their boobs before the film started. [19]

In September 2012, Mel B posed topless in a Coppafeel! advert in Cosmopolitan magazine ahead of breast cancer awareness month. [20] The advert's risqué nature received mass-media coverage. [21]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Breast fetishism</span> Sexual interest focused on female breasts

As a paraphilia, breast fetishism is a sexual interest that focuses exclusively on the female breasts, and is a type of partialism. The term breast fetishism is also used in the non-paraphilic sense, to refer to cultural attention to female breasts and the sexuality they represent.

The pink ribbon is an international symbol of breast cancer awareness. Pink ribbons, and the color pink in general, identify the wearer or promoter with the breast cancer brand and express moral support for people with breast cancer. Pink ribbons are most commonly seen during National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canadian Cancer Society</span> Canadian charity

The Canadian Cancer Society is Canada's largest national cancer charity and the largest national charitable funder of cancer research in Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Susan G. Komen for the Cure</span> American non-profit organization

Susan G. Komen is a breast cancer organization in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Breast Cancer Awareness Month</span> Annual health campaign

Breast Cancer Awareness Month (BCAM), also referred to in the United States as National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (NBCAM), is an annual international health campaign organized by major breast cancer charities every October to increase awareness of the disease and raise funds for research into its cause, prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and cure.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Breakthrough Breast Cancer</span>

Breakthrough Breast Cancer was a United Kingdom charity whose mission was to "save lives through improving early diagnosis, developing new treatments and preventing all types of breast cancer". In 2015, Breakthrough Breast Cancer merged with another UK charity, Breast Cancer Campaign, to form the UK's largest breast cancer research charity - Breast Cancer Now. In 2019, Breast Cancer Care merged with Breast Cancer Now and the two organizations together became known as Breast Cancer Now.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Breast Cancer Campaign</span> Cancer research charity

Breast Cancer Campaign was a breast cancer research charity based in the United Kingdom. In 2015, Breast Cancer Campaign merged with another charity, Breakthrough Breast Cancer, to form the UK's largest breast cancer research charity - Breast Cancer Now.

The Keep a Breast Foundation (KAB) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization focused on breast cancer prevention, education, and early detection, based in Yucca Valley, California, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jorgie Porter</span> English actress, model (b. 1987)

Jorgina Alexandra Porter is an English actress and model. She is known for portraying the role of Theresa McQueen in the Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks from 2008 until 2016 and again from 2020.

Fashion Targets Breast Cancer is a charity campaign originally launched in the UK in 1996 by Breakthrough Breast Cancer, and now operated under the charity's new name Breast Cancer Now. Corporate partners for the campaign represent famous high-street brands, including M & S, Topshop, and River Island. M & S has sold a wide range of charitable women's clothes for Breast Cancer Now for many years. The campaign is best known for its famous 'target' logo T-shirt designed by Ralph Lauren. Since 1996, Fashion Targets Breast Cancer has raised over £14 million to fund pioneering breast cancer research.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joanna Forest</span>

Joanna Forest is an English soprano.

Aliya-Jasmine "AJ" Sovani is a Canadian television broadcaster and producer, initially known for her work on MTV. She is currently working as a host for NBC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Breast cancer awareness</span>

Breast cancer awareness is an effort to raise awareness and reduce the stigma of breast cancer through education about screening, symptoms, and treatment. Supporters hope that greater knowledge will lead to earlier detection of breast cancer, which is associated with higher long-term survival rates, and that money raised for breast cancer will produce a reliable, permanent cure.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Festifeel</span>

Festifeel is an annual music festival held to raise money for breast cancer awareness. The festival is organised by the English breast cancer charity CoppaFeel. It describes itself as "Britain's only boutique music festival with boobs in mind".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neknominate</span> Drinking game

Neknominate, also known as neck and nominate, neknomination or neck nomination, is an online drinking game. The original rules of the game require the participants to film themselves drinking a pint of an alcoholic beverage, usually beer, in one gulp and upload the footage to the web. A participant then nominates another person to do the same within 24 hours.

The Feeling Nuts movement is a social media campaign created by Check One Two in London, to encourage young men to regularly check their testicles for early signs of testicular cancer. The campaign went viral when the public and celebrities began sharing pictures and videos of crotch grabs using the hashtag #feelingnuts and became a TV event on Channel 4. The campaign involves both social media and television.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kristin Hallenga</span> English columnist and philanthropist (1985–2024)

Kristin Hallenga was a West German-born British columnist and philanthropist. Diagnosed with breast cancer in 2009, when she was 23, she became an activist for raising awareness about the disease among young people and founded the charity CoppaFeel!.

The Pinkathon, India's biggest women's run, is an initiative of the United Sisters Foundation and organised by Maximus Mice and Media Solutions Pvt Ltd. It was created with the specific purpose of getting more and more women to adopt a fitter lifestyle and to highlight the need for increased awareness about Breast cancer and other health issues that put women's lives at risk. State Bank of India took up the title sponsorship of the Pinkathon in 2014. The founders of Pinkathon are Milind Soman and Reema Sanghavi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Breast physics</span> Bouncing breasts in video games

In video games, breast physics or jiggle physics are a feature that makes a female character's breasts bounce when she moves, sometimes in an exaggerated or unnatural manner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">No Bra Day</span> Annual day for breast cancer awareness

No Bra Day is an annual observance on October 13 on which women are encouraged to go braless as a means to encourage breast cancer awareness. No Bra Day was initially observed on July 9, 2011, but within three years it had moved to the 13th day of the National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, October. Users on social media are encouraged to post using the hashtag #nobraday to promote awareness of breast cancer symptoms and to encourage gender equality. Some users on social media sites also encourage women to post pictures of themselves not wearing a bra. Some women embrace No Bra Day as a political statement while others prefer the comfort of discarding what they view as a restrictive, uncomfortable garment.

References

  1. 1 2 IOL Lifestyle, 'I never ask how long I've got', Retrieved May 11, 2013
  2. ↑ Campaign, Mathew Horne tells cinema goers to 'CoppaFeel!' in breast cancer awareness ad, Retrieved May 11, 2013
  3. ↑ Cosmopolitan, CoppaFeel! Archived 2013-11-29 at the Wayback Machine , Retrieved May 11, 2013
  4. 1 2 BBC Radio One Newsbeat, Fearne Cotton meets Coppafeel founder Kris Hallenga, Retrieved - 11 May 2013
  5. 1 2 The Independent, 'I never ask my doctor how long I've got', Retrieved - May 11, 2013
  6. ↑ PR Week, Mathew Horne Tells Cinema Goers to CoppaFeel! in Breast Cancer Awareness Ad, Retrieved - May 11, 2013
  7. ↑ The Mirror, 'Meet the brilliant Boobettes', Retrieved - May 14, 2013
  8. ↑ Huffington Post 'Breast Cancer Awareness: Do You Know What Normal Feels Like?', Retrieved - June 03 2015
  9. ↑ Express, 'Women bare their breasts for cancer charity Coppafeel!'s #whatnormalfeelslike campaign', Retrieved - June 03 2015
  10. ↑ Coppafeel, Cheknominate, Retrieved - June 3, 2015
  11. ↑ Huffington Post, 'Forget Neknominate, Coppafeel! Want Us To Check Our Breasts Using #CHEKNOMINATE', Retrieved - June 3, 2015
  12. ↑ Metro, Angel of the North Bobbs Hijacked by CoppaFeel! Cancer Charity, Retrieved - May 11, 2013
  13. ↑ BBC, 'Kris: Dying to live', Retrieved - June 03 2015
  14. ↑ BBC, 'Lisa Lynch longed for The C Word to be brought to life – it was an honour to be involved', Retrieved - June 03 2015
  15. ↑ Fame Magazine, 'Fearne Cotton Presents Festifeel 2012', Retrieved - May 14, 2013
  16. ↑ Lomography, 'CoppaFeel! And Get Festival Photo-Passes!', Retrieved - May 14, 2013
  17. ↑ "CoppaFeel! lands in Leeds/". Retrieved May 17, 2013.
  18. ↑ "This is Bath, 'CoppaFeel! chosen as official charity for next year's Bath half marathon". Retrieved May 17, 2013.
  19. ↑ "Campaign, Mathew Horne tells cinema goers to 'CoppaFeel!' in breast cancer awareness ad". Retrieved May 21, 2013.
  20. ↑ "'I love boobs': Mel B goes topless and reveals she used to fondle the Spice Girls'". Retrieved May 21, 2013.
  21. ↑ "Why is breast cancer awareness made so sexy?" The Independent , retrieved May 17, 2013.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.